Kathy GreenleeAssistant Secretary for Aging U.S. Department of Health & Human Services & Raphael BosticAssistant Secretary for Policy & Research Development U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development

The White House LGBT Conference on Aging will provide advocates, community leaders, and members of the public an opportunity to engage with the Obama Administration on the health, housing, and security needs of aging members of the LGBT community. Participants will receive updates from senior officials from The White House and key agencies and departments, connect with Federal government resources and opportunities through workshop sessions, and provide valuable feedback through the “Open Space” process.

Burlington, Vt — Truth Wins Out has exclusively obtained a letter from psychologist Dr. Robert Spitzer officially invalidating his infamous 2001 study which claimed that some “highly motivated” homosexuals could go from gay to straight. Spitzer’s letter was written to Dr. Ken Zucker, editor of theArchives of Sexual Behavior – the journal that originally published Spitzer’s research in 2001 but has yet to print a retraction. In light of this development, TWO slammed the many anti-gay and “ex-gay” groups that continue to cite Spitzer’s study on their webpages.

“Organizations that continue to cite Spitzer’s repudiated study, such as PFOX, Focus on the Family, and NARTH, are being dishonest and blatantly misleading their followers,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “By failing to expeditiously remove references to the Spitzer study, these groups are showing themselves to be completely devoid of character and integrity.”

Spitzer’s letter is also noteworthy because it contains an apology for the harm his study caused to victims of “pray away the gay” therapy and to the greater LGBT community:

I believe I owe the gay community an apology for my study making unproven claims of the efficacy of reparative therapy. I also apologize to any gay person who wasted time and energy undergoing some form of reparative therapy because they believed that I had proven that reparative therapy works with some “highly motivated” individuals.

In the letter, Dr. Spitzer further explains that his study’s “fatal flaw” is that it was predicated entirely on changes in sexual orientation reported by the patients themselves. He said, “…the simple fact is that there was no way to determine if the subject’s accounts of change were valid.” This brings Dr. Spitzer into agreement with every mainstream organization of medical and mental health professionals, all of which condemn so-called “reparative therapy” as both ineffective and potentially dangerous.

“Apologizing to the victims of reparative therapy and the greater LGBT community was the right thing to do. It represents a watershed moment in the fight against the ‘ex-gay’ myth,” said John Becker, TWO’s Director of Communications. “Even more importantly, it will help to greatly hasten the day when the scourge that is reparative therapy is eradicated completely and LGBT people can live openly, honestly, and true to themselves.”

TruthWinsOutis a nonprofit organization that fights anti-LGBT extremism. TWO specializes in turning information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for LGBT equality.

WORCESTER, Mass. -- A Massachusetts bishop says he stands by his decision to ask a Catholic college to withdraw its invitation for U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy's widow to speak at commencement.

Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester last month asked Anna Maria College to rescind its invitation to Victoria Kennedy because of concerns over her position on some social issues that counter Catholic teachings, including abortion and gay marriage.

Catholic Democrats and Faithful America on Wednesday delivered a 20,000-signature petition asking the bishop to change his mind. They said McManus was politicizing the graduation.

The Telegram & Gazette reports that in a statement Thursday, McManus said he stands behind his original concerns and withdrawal of the invitation was "in the best interest of all parties."

BY LAURIE KELLMAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- The Senate has passed a bill to renew the government's main domestic violence program.

The 68-31 vote to renew and expand the Violence Against Women Act sends the matter to the House, which is writing its own version.

The 1994 law is designed to protect women and children from abuse, and historically has been without controversy. But this election year, gender politics roiled the debate for weeks.

Democrats accused Republicans standing in the way and waging a "war against women."

But Republicans never tried to block the measure. Instead they proposed removing specific references to protecting gays, lesbian and transgender people, and capping the number of visas for battered immigrants.

Mary Ward, a divorced gay woman, lost custody of her pre-teen daughter, Cassey, in 1995 when a Pensacola judge declared the girl should “live in a nonlesbian world.”

Judge Joseph Q. Tarbuck ruled Cassey’s father would make a better parent — even though John Ward had pleaded guilty to murdering his first wife in a rage over custody of their daughter, who years later said he tried to sexually abuse her.

In 1996, a Florida appeals court upheld Tarbuck’s decision and an anguished Mary Ward, 47, died of a heart attack soon after.

A documentary about the case, UNFIT: Ward vs. Ward, debuted Monday at the 14th annual Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. The 75-minute movie was produced by Miami Beach filmmakers Edwin Scharlau and Katie Carmichael.

“Mary Ward was a very good mother. Mary Ward was a flawed human being like we all are, but she was a very good mother. And what happened to her shouldn’t happen to anyone,” Carmichael said. “She lost custody of her 11-year-old daughter to her ex-husband solely because she was a lesbian.”

John and Mary married in 1983, shortly after he was released from a Florida prison for the second-degree murder of his previous wife, Judy.

“I wanted her to give me my divorce and custody of my daughter. And she told me she’d see me in hell first. And I told her to save me a seat. And then I shot her,” Ward told Geraldo Rivera in a 1996 television interview six months after he got custody of Cassey.

“I shot her three times in the upper left shoulder. She told me not to kill her, she would give me the baby and a divorce. I fired three times point blank into the heart. ... I reloaded and shot her six more times point.”

A week after the Geraldo appearance, John and Judy’s grown daughter, Michelle McInnes, told a Pensacola TV station: “The one thing a lot of people don’t know is my dad tried to molest me, and I know my dad tried to molest other children.”

Mary Ward had three children from a previous marriage. Her eldest daughter, Carla Janes, calls John a racist.

“When I was 16 or 17, I brought a friend of mine over, a black girl,” Janes says in UNFIT. “He was like, ‘Get that damn n----r out of my yard.’”

In 1989, Mary sought a divorce, which became final in 1992. John agreed to let her have custody of Cassey and pay $150 a month in child support.

By 1994, Mary had a new partner, Marjorie Wright, and John had married Rita Hamby. When Mary sought an increase in child support, “John filed for a complete modification of custody,” Scharlau said.

Although Mary’s sexual orientation had not previously been an issue, John and his new wife said they didn’t want Cassey raised in a lesbian household.

“John had been aware that Mary had same-sex relationships before they married,” Scharlau said. “He knew she was in a same-sex relationship because he helped move Mary into Marjorie Wright’s apartment.”

After a two-hour hearing, Tarbuck ruled against Mary.

“She was devastated,” Carmichael said. “The way she defined herself was by her children.”

“Up until the part that she told me that John had murdered his first wife, the story was all too common,” said Kate Kendell, NCLR legal director at the time and now executive director.

She and Tallahassee attorney Charlene Carres took Mary’s case.

“I was struck by not just the legal injustice, but the human injustice. She so clearly was a lovely person and a devoted parent,” Kendell said.

“John never really wanted [Cassey]. She lived with him for a few months on and off over the next year after Mary’s death. After two or three years, she was living with Carla and being raised by Carla, who in the final ironic twist is a lesbian. This was all for naught.”

Cassey told the filmmakers she regrets not being able to stay with her mother.

“I look at my brother and my sisters, and how they’re, you know, doing good and have all their friends and great jobs and homes, and I think if Mom would have got to raise me it would be the same because they had the love and support from Mom,” she says in UNFIT. “But my dad was country and kind of narrow-minded.”

It was “very common” in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, for gay and lesbian parents to lose custody because of their sexual orientation, Kendell says, but today, Mary Ward’s story would have a different ending.

“I think things have progressed so much in Florida that Mary would not need NCLR. At the trial level, she would have been able to retain custody of Cassey. Even assuming that she lost, as was the case in her first trial, I think we … would have prevailed upon appeal.”

Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr., who wrote about the case in the 1990s and appears in UNFIT, isn’t so certain:

“I will argue that there still is a greater fear among some people of a lesbian mother than of a father who was a convicted killer, a racist and accused but unconvicted child molester,” Pitts said.

“It more than astonishes me. It appalls me. The starkness of it. There’s no gray area here. No nuance. Just homophobia. Straight, no chaser.”

IF YOU GO

The Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival runs through May 6. Ticket information and a full schedule are at www.mglff.com.

“I believe that the Boy Scouts of America does a wonderful service for this country. I support the right of the Boy Scouts of America to decide what it wants to do on that issue. I feel that all people should be able to participate in the Boy Scouts regardless of their sexual orientation.”

Romney’s statement echoes the opinion of over 146,000 Americans who have joined Ohio mom Jennifer Tyrrell’s Change.org action calling on the Boy Scouts of America to end its long history of discrimination against LGBT people. Tyrrell was ousted as scout leader of her 7-year-old son’s boy scouts troop because she’s gay.

Supporters can join Tyrrell’s call here: http://change.org/scouts. A video of Jen sharing her story at the GLAAD Media Awards is available here: http://youtube.com/glaad. Celebrities including Josh Hutcherson, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, as well asGlee stars Max Adler and Grant Gustin also showed support for Tyrrell and her family at the GLAAD Media Awards.

“The Boy Scouts are supposed to have a platform of tolerance, acceptance, and support -- values that drew my son Cruz to be a scout, and that drew me to want to be a den leader,” Tyrrell told the crowd at the 23rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards on Saturday. “Yet by continuing to dismiss gay youth and gay leaders from their organization, the Boy Scouts of America is failing these values, harming families and communities by sending a message that all are not welcome.” “The only ‘character development’ and ‘values-based leadership training’ the Boy Scouts have taught our young people in this case is that blatant discrimination is OK,” said GLAAD President Herndon Graddick. “Tossing aside the hard work and leadership of a committed mom because of who she loves is not a ‘value’ that a majority Americans want taught to their children.”

Among service organizations, the Boy Scouts are increasingly isolating themselves with their prohibition on gay youth and leaders. Organizations including the Girl Scouts of America, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, as well as the 4H Club all welcome gay kids as well as adult leaders. And just this month, the president of the James Beard Foundation announced that she would rescind her acceptance of the Boy Scouts’ Distinguished Citizen Award, noting the Scouts’ policy prohibiting gay people from service and leadership.

In a call for compassion, the concert offers a source of hope and inspiration for all who believe in social justice. Inspired by an opportunity to play the piano on which John Lennon’s performed "Imagine," composer Steve Schalchlin has created a song cycle journey styled in pop, salsa, gospel and lowdown dirty blues.

The program also features a component in which diverse people share personal stories of how they survived bullying and oppression with the support of family, friends and the community.

The Miami Gay Men’s Chorus is an inclusive, community-based organization of gay men and gay-supporting people that inspires and changes lives through the power of music. With humor and heart, it proudly entertains its audiences while striving for artistic excellence.

With a repertoire ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, INSIGNIA is comprised of singers who audition from within the Miami Gay Men’s Chorus.

The concert is presented as part of the Aventura Arts & Cultural Center’s Arts Access Program, which provides technical and marketing support to local community groups enabling them to develop and build their audiences.

Tickets are $15 and are available through the Aventura Arts & Cultural Center's box office at (877) 311-7469 or online at www.AventuraCenter.org.

Managed by the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, the Aventura Arts & Cultural Center is a 14,864-square-foot, 326-seat waterfront complex that hosts performing arts, cultural and educational programming for all ages. The Aventura Arts & Cultural Center is located at 3385 N.E. 188 Street in Aventura and on Twitter @AventuraCenter.

Vi at Aventura is a proud sponsor of the Aventura Arts & Cultural Center.

Half-naked firefighters strut their stuff Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at a Secretary's Day luncheon as they compete for a spot on the 20th Anniversary 2013 South Florida Firefighters Calendar. A draw was called and all will get a spot on the calendar.

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the 2012 Miami Recognition Dinner Event Committee are proud to announce that attorney and activist Elizabeth F. Schwartz will receive the 2012 Eddy McIntyre Community Service Award at this year’s ceremony on Saturday, October 6.

Liz has devoted much of her life to serving the LGBT community. Her law practice emphasizes representation of the LGBT community in family formation and dissolution matters, and she lectures locally and nationally about the importance of gay couples protecting their loved ones through estate planning and contract. She has served as pro bono counsel in several cases seeking to overturn Florida’s uniquely bigoted 1977 ban forbidding gays and lesbians from adopting children.

Liz is a founding member of the Aqua Foundation for Women and has donated her time, money and expertise to numerous groups serving the LGBT community on a local, state and national level. Her contributions have been recognized by many organizations, including Equality Florida, SunServe and the Miami-Dade Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. At SAVE’s May 11 Champions of Equality event, Liz will be inducted into the organization’s Hall of Champions.

Tickets for the Miami Recognition Dinner areon sale at early bird rates— $200 for general admission and $300 for VIP tickets - through May 31. On June 1, ticket prices will increase by $50.